How popular is the baby name Charles in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Charles.

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Popularity of the baby name Charles


Posts that mention the name Charles

Popular baby names in Boston (Massachusetts), 2023

Flag of Massachusetts
Flag of Massachusetts

Last year, the City of Boston welcomed a total of 20,645 babies.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Olivia and Liam.

Here are Boston’s top 20 girl names and top 20 boy names of 2023:

Girl names

  1. Olivia
  2. Emma
  3. Sophia
  4. Charlotte
  5. Sofia
  6. Isabella
  7. Grace
  8. Chloe
  9. Amelia
  10. Maya
  11. Luna
  12. Gianna
  13. Mia
  14. Nora
  15. Ava
  16. Natalie
  17. Ella
  18. Emilia
  19. Maeve
  20. Eleanor

Boy names

  1. Liam
  2. Noah
  3. Henry
  4. Leo
  5. Theodore
  6. Jack
  7. Julian
  8. James
  9. Thomas
  10. Benjamin
  11. William
  12. Luca
  13. John
  14. Ethan
  15. Logan
  16. Aiden
  17. Charles
  18. Samuel
  19. Joseph
  20. Oliver

Thomas caught my eye — it’s a top-10 boy name in Boston, but (in 2022) it only managed to rank 22nd state-wide and 45th country-wide.

Massachusetts’ top baby names of 2023 won’t be revealed until May, when the new SSA data comes out, but the state’s #1 names in 2022 were Olivia and Noah. (Noah won by a wide margin, in fact. It was given to 142 more baby boys than second-place Liam.)

Sources: Most Popular Baby Names in Boston, SSA

Image: Adapted from Flag of Massachusetts (public domain)

Which boy names are the most Canadian?

Lake Louise, Canada

Yesterday we came up with some girl names that were either particularly Canadian or particularly American. So today let’s do the same thing for boy names.

Again, here are the two different methods:

First, we’ll look at the most popular names that appeared in only one set of data (either Canada or the U.S.) in 2022.

Second, we’ll look at the names that appeared in both sets of data, focusing on how proportionally popular each name was in each place. For the boy names below, I calculated the proportions by dividing each name’s U.S. usage by the total number of boys born in the U.S. last year (1,863,582) and each name’s Canadian usage by the total number of boys born Canada last year (180,763).

Top Canada-only boy names

The 2022 Canadian data included 261 boy names that were not in the U.S. data. Below are the 10 most popular Canada-only boy names.

Number of boys (Can.)Rank (Can.)
1. Edouard49249th
2. Arnaud35285th
3. Florent73394th
4. Laurier60460th
5. Loik57485th
6. Ludovick45588th
7. Renaud42627th
8. Gregoire30831st
9. Charles-Edouard27 (tie)902nd (tie)
10. Gurniwaz27 (tie)902nd (tie)

Nine out of ten are French names used primarily in Quebec:

  • Edouard: 482 of 492 born in Quebec
  • Arnaud: 349 of 352
  • Florent: 71 of 73
  • Laurier: 60 of 60 (all)
  • Loik: 47 of 57
  • Ludovick: 45 of 45 (all)
  • Renaud: 40 of 42
  • Gregoire: 30 of 30 (all)
  • Charles-Edouard: 25 of 27

The Sikh name Gurniwaz, however, was not used in Quebec at all.

Boy names particularly popular in Canada

Now let’s look at the more than 2,950 boy names that appeared in both sets of data. Of the boy names used more frequently in Canada than in the U.S., the 10 below had the largest pro-Canada differentials. (I added the rankings for both countries as well.)

Differential (Pro-Can.)Rank (Can.)Rank (U.S.)
1. Leo0.3578%4th22nd
2. Adam0.3460%16th97th
3. Felix0.3408%23rd192nd
4. Theo0.3217%17th99th
5. Thomas0.3197%8th45th
6. Arthur0.3030%22nd140th
7. Nathan0.2830%13th57th
8. Muhammad0.2675%35th297th
9. Louis0.2576%34th246th
10. Emile0.2473%60th2,076th

Top U.S.-only boy names

The 2022 U.S. data included 11,297 boy names that were not in the Canadian data. Below are the 10 most popular U.S.-only boy names.

Number of boys (U.S.)Rank (U.S.)
1. Jesus2,247165th
2. Iker830385th
3. Jaziel779412th
4. Baker709433rd
5. Major701441st
6. Marcos614491st
7. Roberto607498th
8. Jamari577512th
9. Tadeo567519th
10. Jamir555534th

Many of these are used primarily by Spanish speakers.

Boy names particularly popular in the U.S.

Now, back to the names that both countries had in common. Of the boy names used more frequently in the U.S. than in Canada, the 10 below had the largest pro-U.S. differentials.

Differential (Pro-U.S.)Rank (U.S.)Rank (Can.)
1. Elijah0.3147%5th37th
2. Mateo0.2833%11th50th
3. Santiago0.2620%48th285th
4. Sebastian0.2584%13th62nd
5. Angel0.2474%62nd603rd
6. Julian0.2467%35th125th
7. John0.2219%26th80th
8. Josiah0.2152%51st199th
9. Michael0.2143%16th52nd
10. Christopher0.1936%56th179th

What are your thoughts on the names above?

Sources:

Image by Redd F from Unsplash

Popular baby names in Canada, 2022

Flag of Canada
Flag of Canada

The vast country of Canada is located in North America and shares the world’s longest international land border with its neighbor to the south, the United States.

Last year, Canada (excluding Yukon) welcomed 351,679 babies — 48.6% of which were girls, 51.4% of which were boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Olivia and Noah.

Here are Canada’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2022:

Girl Names

  1. Olivia, 1,804 baby girls
  2. Emma, 1,550
  3. Charlotte, 1,475
  4. Amelia, 1,193
  5. Sophia, 1,079
  6. Chloe, 1,057
  7. Mia, 946
  8. Ava, 923
  9. Lily, 861
  10. Mila, 847
  11. Alice, 786
  12. Isla, 769
  13. Sofia, 763
  14. Evelyn, 751
  15. Abigail, 715
  16. Sophie, 712
  17. Nora, 708
  18. Charlie, 700
  19. Ellie, 680
  20. Zoe, 661
  21. Maya, 658
  22. Isabella, 656
  23. Ella, 634
  24. Clara, 618
  25. Elizabeth, 617
  26. Aria, 610
  27. Violet, 599
  28. Rose, 593
  29. Eva, 578
  30. Hannah, 577
  31. Emily, 575 (tie)
  32. Luna, 575 (tie)
  33. Ivy, 562
  34. Harper, 560
  35. Florence, 557
  36. Scarlett, 519
  37. Victoria, 514
  38. Hazel, 513
  39. Julia, 492
  40. Avery, 490
  41. Madison, 488
  42. Zoey, 474
  43. Eleanor, 467
  44. Grace, 448 (tie)
  45. Livia, 448 (tie)
  46. Emilia, 447
  47. Layla, 437
  48. Aurora, 435
  49. Lea, 434
  50. Willow, 430

Boy Names

  1. Noah, 2,198 baby boys
  2. Liam, 1,902
  3. William, 1,516
  4. Leo, 1,447
  5. Theodore, 1,423
  6. Oliver, 1,273
  7. Benjamin, 1,217
  8. Thomas, 1,205
  9. Lucas, 1,187
  10. Jack, 1,186
  11. James, 1,141
  12. Jacob, 1,105
  13. Nathan, 1,047
  14. Logan, 1,044
  15. Ethan, 1,040
  16. Adam, 977
  17. Theo, 932
  18. Jackson, 907
  19. Owen, 891
  20. Henry, 870
  21. Levi, 831
  22. Arthur, 807
  23. Felix, 806
  24. Gabriel, 777
  25. Samuel, 753
  26. Charles, 749
  27. Luca, 719
  28. Hudson, 663
  29. Nolan, 651
  30. Alexander, 647
  31. Daniel, 644
  32. Mason, 622
  33. Caleb, 613
  34. Louis, 604
  35. Jayden, 595 (tie)
  36. Muhammad, 595 (tie)
  37. Elijah, 593
  38. Aiden, 584
  39. Maverick, 581
  40. Isaac, 579
  41. Ryan, 538
  42. Wyatt, 521
  43. Carter, 520
  44. Luke, 516
  45. Elliot, 499 (tie)
  46. Lincoln, 499 (tie)
  47. Eli, 496
  48. Grayson, 495
  49. Edouard, 492
  50. Mateo, 489

The names in Canada’s top 100 that rose the fastest from 2021 to 2022 were:

  • Wren, Blake, Eloise, Freya, Athena, and Gabriella (girl names)
  • Leon, Ali, Cooper, Rowan, Charlie, Luke, and Sebastian (boy names)

And here’s a selection of names from the other end of the spectrum — names that were given to just 5 babies each in Canada last year:

Rare girl namesRare boy names
Aberdeen, Becca, Charis, Dorcas, Everlyn, Farida, Guntas, Hadeel, Iremide, Jolianne, Khawla, Lumina, Mavi, Nichelle, Opale, Perrie, Rhya, Sylia, Tavisha, Uma, Verna, Wilder, Yoadan, ZaynahAlborz, Brandt, Cornelius, Dryden, Espen, Fabrice, Gurjot, Hades, Indy, Jesper, Kuzey, Lorne, Mederic, Nima, Onkar, Poseidon, Rorik, Solal, Theeran, Udayvir, Viansh, Wesson, Yvan, Zeno

The names used even less frequently — between one and four times — “accounted for 86% of all baby names in 2022.”

Finally, here are Canada’s 2021 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

Sources: First names at birth by sex at birth, selected indicators – Statistics Canada, Canada’s most popular baby names in 2022 – Statistics Canada, Births, 2022 – Statistics Canada, Canada – Wikipedia

Image: Adapted from Flag of Canada (public domain)

Baby born in Britain, named after royal horse

Diamond Jubilee
Diamond Jubilee

British diplomat Charles Hardinge (who served as Viceroy of India from 1910 to 1916) and his wife Winifred had a total of three children:

  • Edward, b. 1892
  • Alexander, b. 1894
  • Diamond, b. 1900

Their oldest was named after Edward, the Prince of Wales (who, in 1901, became King Edward VII).

Their middle child was named after Alexandra, the Princess of Wales (later Queen Alexandra).

And their youngest? She wasn’t named after a royal person, but after a royal person’s horse: Diamond Jubilee, who was owned by the Prince of Wales and won the Epsom Derby about a week before she was born. (Diamond Jubilee was foaled in 1897 — the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.)

Sources:

Image: Diamond Jubilee from The New Book of the Horse (1911) by Charles Richardson